Festival attracts big names for suicide prevention

Dance artist Ian Van Dahl and M People singer Heather Small are due to headline a festival in memory of a man who took his own life aged 25.

Organisers of Laybo's Fest in Gainsborough on 17 and 18 May said it aims to "make memories and generate positivity while remembering loved ones we have lost".

The festival, now in its fifth year, is in memory of Leighton Hall who died in May 2019.

The festival launched online during the Covid-19 pandemic but has quickly grown to become one of Gainsborough's biggest annual events and this year, for the first time, it is being held on the pitch at Gainsborough Trinity FC.

The year after he died, Mr Hall's family asked his close friend Matthew Hill to create something to remember him by.

"Leighton was a great friend," Mr Hill said.

"He was such a social character and obviously we miss him very very much.

"The festival itself is our testament to Leighton, our tribute to Leighton and also a show of strength and comfort to anybody that's found themselves in our position of them losing their own Leighton."

Mr Hill said the football pitch would be transformed with pop icons, local acts and workshops.

Another friend of Mr Hall, Emily Kitchener, has organised children from 16 schools to come together to form one large choir on Sunday.

One of the schools taking part is Benjamin Adlard Primary, which Mr Hall attended as a child.

"There are teachers here whose children were in Leighton's class," Ms Kitchener said.

"So it feels really nice to be part of this in somewhere where he will have spent a lot of time being cheeky, I'm sure.

"He was the life and soul of the party and, once he had a microphone in his hand, there was no getting it off him so we bonded over that, doing lots of singing together."

The festival raises money for the charity Laybo's Legacy which helps families with financial aid towards funeral costs of loved ones lost to suicide.

Mr Hall's mother, Niki Hall, said: "It just makes me so proud and it's keeping Leighton's memory alive."

Ms Hall has attended help groups since her son's death and said she took comfort from the fact the festival raises money to help others.

"It needed a person like Leighton," she said.

"That's what keeps me going, because of the person he was. It needed someone like him to make people aware it can happen to anyone.

"Just talk. Even if you're not going for help, just talk."

Ms Kitchener said Mr Hall would have "absolutely loved" the festival.

"I think he'd be so shocked at how big it's got, but he'd be so proud of what everyone's doing as well," she said.

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